Celebrity News

Taylor Dayne on '80s Nostalgia and Her Greatest Hits Album

By:
Jessica Appelbaum

Jul 30, 2012 | 5:08am EDT

Between winning the Hollywood Music Media award for her work on The Help soundtrack, recording a soundtrack called “Rise of the Phoenix,” and acting in two movies, it’s been a big year for dance music legend Taylor Dayne — and with the upcoming release of her greatest hits album, things aren’t slowing down any time soon. In addition to taking care of her two kids, Dayne has been working day and night to re-record her hit songs song on the upcoming album, as well as a few new singles, which may or may not go on the CD. Despite how busy she is, the singing legend took a few moments to chat with to Hollywood.com.

Dayne has been hard at work on her upcoming greatest hits album, which will include tracks such as “Tale of My Heart,” “I’ll Always Love You,” “Shelter,” “Prove Your Love,” “Send Me A Lover,” “I’ll Always Love You,” “Love Will Lead You Back,” and “Beautiful.” Because of copyright law, she had to re-record ever track on the CD, a process she calls “consuming.” She is considering putting new singles on the album, but has yet to decide. “The hits already speak for themselves, but, you know, hello, we’re in 2012,” she says. “I really feel the weight and the responsibility to make sure the music I’m recording now and experimenting with is up to par with the record.”

Aside from her music, Dayne has also recently acted in two indie films, I Am Bad and Telling of the Shoes, both of which are rumored to be in their post-production stages and slated to come out in 2012. Dayne says that although she enjoyed working on the films, she doesn’t count on them being syndicated. “It’s kind of like you do some of these films with these little indies, and kind of walk away, and then you’re shocked when they come out, or if they do.”

She isn’t the only actor in the family: her two kids, 10-year-old twins Levi and Astaria, go to a film-making camp run by Evan Rachel Wood’s mother Sarah Wood every summer. “They just scoop it up,” Dayne says. “They’re loving their acting and they’re very creative.” Although she wants to encourage her children to pursue their artistic dreams, she still feels it is important to be realistic with her them about a future in the entertainment industry. “I watched this film [that they made at camp] and I was floored," she says. "Not because they want to act and sing — it’s like, whatever, I love you, I love that, but that’s not all — it was just a great piece of work to watch, and it’s always the product [that matters]. The same thing is for me. It’s like you can have it in your head, but it’s always going to be the product, even when it’s a 10-year-old child. We love them because we love them, but god, you watch this stuff, and I was like,’The camera eats you up, you really are enjoying this.” That’s art. It still has to be produced.”

Here we go with our '80s Pop Culture Quiz:

Hollywood.com: Cyndi Lauper or Madonna?

Taylor: Christ, you didn’t tell me this was going to be hard. I mean it’s tough. Okay, you ready? I love them both, for very different reasons, but I’m going to with Cyndi. Live performance. Just energy on stage, and pure musicality.

Hollywood.com: Leg warmers or lace fingerless gloves?

Taylor: Hands down fingerless gloves. They can just be completely modernized, dressed up, and can be photographed incredibly well.

Hollywood.com: Breakfast Club or Sixteen Candles?

Taylor: Sixteen Candles a thousand percent. The boy in 'Sixteen Candles' alone, and just the relationship, the annoyance of what’s the redhead’s name again? How he tormented her, and actual just struggles that she went through to get the boy, I just, hands down.

Hollywood.com: Poison or Def Leppard?

Taylor: Def Leppard. That was the explosion of the arena sounding rock of the 80’s. Just incredibly produced arena rock. It was amazing.

Hollywood.com: Simon or Rubik’s Cube?

Taylor: I’m gonna say Simon. You had to be quick. It was more competitiveness, to me.

Hollywood.com: Dynasty or Twin Peaks?

Taylor: Twin Peaks. That was more when I started going more into pop culture. For me, it was just much more cerebral and crazy making and there were beautiful people in it.

Taylor: Are you kidding me? My kids would have a preference for that. I’ll just say Transformers, it seemed, I just couldn’t relate to grown-ass people in turtle suits and sh*t, just no.

Hollywood.com: Back to the Future or Teen Wolf?

Taylor: I just think Back to the Future just launched this whole, there was just something about it that was home school viral, and it took on this whole. I mean, Michael J. — it was just so much fun, there was so much adventure in that.

Hollywood.com: The Goonies or Stand By Me?

Taylor: Stand By Me, there’s just no question. Film-making, just as far as the film is concerned. You can just look at the talent, and the crew of boys involved in both of them, but I would just say the film-making aspect of it alone. You can go from cinematography to the actual relationship between the boys was so much more, it was just, it was a classic film.

Hollywood.com: Do you remember Aqua Net and L.A. Looks? Were you a fan of either of those products?

Taylor: Aqua Net, I remember looking at shelf. And what was the other one?

Hollywood.com: L.A. Looks? That was the weird gel we all used to scrunch our hair.

Taylor: I have no idea. Well you’d be shocked, I never used one gel product in my life, I just bought that stuff and put it in. I just put braids in my hair and you’d wake up in the morning and it would look like that. That’s how you got that crimp. My sister taught me that one.

Hollywood.com: Are you a Journey fan? "Open Arms," "Any Way You Want It," or "Don’t Stop Believing? "

Taylor: I’ll tell you why I would go "Any Way You Want It." One word. Caddyshack. Done. Just to see Rodney Dangerfield on the court, that’s when that song explodes. Do you remember that? That’s hands down one of my top ten films. I could be brokenhearted, left on a curb, and that film could be playing, and at least I’ll give it a look and just see Bill Murray or Chevy Chase. Any scene from that film, and I can just get some glimpse of hope. Between that at Rodney Dangerfield and Ted Knight, it was just comic genius. And I’ll never forget when he’s driving around in the golf cart and he starts with that song.

Hollywood.com: Flock Of Seagulls or Motley Crue?

Taylor: I’m gonna go with Motley Crue, hands down. When they came back with "Dr. Feelgood," it was just mind blowing.

Hollywood.com:Out of these three actors, Rob Lowe, Kirk Cameron, or Michael J. Fox, were you a fan of any of those?

Taylor: Hands down, Rob Lowe. Let’s just start with his looks, his face. The guy always came back and handled business. To me, he’s a class act, he’s more of the quieter ones, he’s been on screen, the guy’s probably been working the last 35 years of his life. And he’s just incredible, he’s a solid actor, and to the girl watching him, he was the teen dream.

Hollywood.com: Do you remember the two Coreys? Corey Haim and Corey Feldman?

Taylor:I would say Corey Haim. Feldman was funny, but Corey Haim, when they were kind of against each other, he was more where I would go to.

Hollywood.com: Mario or Zelda?

Taylor: Mario, hands down. We’re talking about the game, correct? That little guy was like watching a pizza man run around.